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Bigelow Aerospace announced plans for sending soft-bodied modules that are compressed during launch but expand once they reach space.
igelow Aerospace private space station |Bigelow Aerospace
A company t... Read This Article...

NASA’s Opportunity rover is the longest surviving rover on Mars. On Saturday, February 17, it experienced its 5,000th dawn on a distant planet. It was only scheduled to see 90. But Opportunity's long journey st... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON — NASA has certified the current version of the SpaceX Falcon 9 to launch some categories of science missions, a milestone needed for the upcoming, but delayed, launch of an astronomy spacecraft.
... Read This Article...

In Scientific American January 2018, Steve Mirsky quotes a German astronomer saying that 14 years ago “…we would find E.T. within two dozen years.” That person is now at SETI in California, noticing that it wil... Read This Article...

Science fiction is often cited as one of the catalysts for discovery. Depictions of astronomy in movies range from hilarious to meticulous, but even some of the sillier films have a lot of material that inspire... Read This Article...

Physicists have been making incredible breakthroughs in physics for a while now. At CERN, they smash particles together at incredibly high speeds and, for a few fleeting instants, can generate particle-antipart... Read This Article...

A moderate solar flare early this week has generated charged particles that will light up the atmosphere — and could impact power grids and satellites — as early as Thursday.
If you live in the high latitudes,... Read This Article...

Last Tuesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made history when he launched the Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket since the Saturn V took Apollo astronauts to the moon. The Heavy’s payload was Musk’s personal Tes... Read This Article...

Canada, Japan, Europe, Russia are all major players in International Space Station
The Trump administration wants NASA out of the International Space Station by 2025, and private businesses running the place i... Read This Article...

Penn State researchers have developed a method for breaking down human waste and turning it into a Nutella-like spread that might be consumed by astronauts.
Future astronauts may decide to eat their wast... Read This Article...

The space interloper 'Oumuamua is spinning chaotically and will carry on doing so for more than a billion years.
Artwork: The way 'Oumuamua tumbles suggests it was involved in a collision
That is the c... Read This Article...

This probably isn't covered under Elon Musk's warranty...
Thanks to the successful Falcon Heavy launch on Tuesday, SpaceX shot a midnight cherry-red Tesla Roadster into space, with the top down, blaring David ... Read This Article...

Spacecraft could put Mars within reach, according to CEO Elon Musk
The Falcon Heavy may be a remarkable rocket, particularly after its successful maiden launch on Tuesday, but SpaceX has something more impress... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON — NASA has given Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) formal approval for the company’s first cargo mission to the International Space Station in late 2020.
SNC announced Feb. 7 that it had received “a... Read This Article...

“It gives me confidence that BFR is really quite workable.”
Elon Musk reveled in the moment on Tuesday night after his Falcon Heavy rocket flew into space. The world's most powerful booster had done its job, a... Read This Article...

he SpaceX CEO clears up a few things and theorizes a ‘Falcon Super Heavy’
Less than a day before the first scheduled launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy, CEO Elon Musk took questions about the rocket from report... Read This Article...

It’s wearing the SpaceX suit Musk teased in photos last year
Tomorrow is a big day for Elon Musk: his company SpaceX will be launching the new Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Can... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a launch license for the inaugural launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, scheduled for Feb. 6.
The FAA has issued a launch license for the first Falcon... Read This Article...

Two cosmonauts took a spacewalk outside the International Space Stationtoday (Feb. 2) to tackle a long-awaited upgrade to the communications system on the Russian side of the orbiting laboratory. They also set ... Read This Article...

Russian cosmonauts are taking a spacewalk at the International Space Station (ISS) today (Feb. 2), and you can watch the entire 6.5-hour excursion live online.
Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin is pictured in a ... Read This Article...

Yesterday, SpaceX launched its second Falcon 9 rocket of the year from Florida, but the company chose not to land the booster after takeoff and instead dispensed it in the ocean. In a weird twist, the Falcon 9 ... Read This Article...

Last January, at the 229th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in suburban Dallas, astronomers were growing increasingly excited about the progress the James Webb Space Telescope was making towar... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON – The White House announced Jan. 26 that it will nominate former NASA astronaut James Reilly to be the next director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
James Reilly, a former NASA astronaut wh... Read This Article...

NASA officials on Saturday (Jan. 27) postponed a planned spacewalk at the International Space Station this week after developing a software patch for a glitch that two astronauts had expected to fix during the ... Read This Article...

Elon Musk’s unbelievable plan to use his own Tesla Roadster as the demonstration payload for the inaugural test launch of SpaceX’s new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, is reportedly set to happen on February 6.
... Read This Article...

Better understanding of Earth's thermosphere will help researchers protect satellites and astronauts.
NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) launched yesterday, and researchers hope it ... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON – The White House’s next budget request for NASA will likely include plans to end the agency’s operations of the International Space Station by the mid-2020s, a plan that could create new opportuniti... Read This Article...

We’ve been waiting for so long. SpaceX has managed to keep anticipation for its Falcon Heavy debut high since first announcing it back in 2011.
Falcon Heavy on the launchpad.SpaceX
Testing was delaye... Read This Article...

Update: NASA TV is back on the air this morning after the government shutdown was lifted last night. You can now watch the live webcast here, courtesy of NASA TV.
Two NASA astronauts will head outside the In... Read This Article...

The company needs Air Force support
As long as the government shutdown continues, SpaceX won’t be able to test fire the company’s new Falcon Heavy rocket. The company needs support from the US Air Force to do ... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON – Rocket Lab announced Jan. 20 that the second launch of its Electron small rocket was a success, reaching orbit and deploying three cubesats.
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off from the comp... Read This Article...

Did you get a chance to catch the SpaceX launch from Vandenberg AFB on December 22, 2017? Almost all of Los Angeles was able to catch the marvelous display (many not realizing just what it was they were seeing)... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON — SpaceX reiterated at a congressional hearing Jan. 17 that its Falcon 9 rocket performed as expected on its most recent launch, despite swirling questions about the potential failure of the classifi... Read This Article...

SpaceX and Boeing still have a long road ahead to crewed flights
NASA’s ambitious initiative to fly astronauts on commercial spacecraft continues to suffer from schedule delays, as well as questions regarding ... Read This Article...

Astronauts in space suffer from persistently elevated body temperature, which can reach up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) when they exercise, a new study has found.
Canadian astronaut Chris ... Read This Article...

One of the highlights of 2017 was the discovery of the first object in our solar system that definitely came from somewhere else. At first we thought it was a comet, then an asteroid, and now the International ... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON — The successful launch of an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) Jan. 11 marked not just the return to flight of the rocket but also major achievements for several of the companies with pay... Read This Article...

In the article “Mission Debriefing” by Cassie Martin (Science News Dec.13/Jan.6, page 31), the author summarizes new findings of six missions in our solar system. Here’s a summary. There is some hope—but no dir... Read This Article...

Data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed the presence of tunnels at the moon’s north pole that were once filled with lava but now store potentially vast quantities of frozen water.
One of ... Read This Article...

Back in 1610, Galileo Galilei witnessed the first telescopic observation of the night sky, discovering Jupiter's moons, lunar craters and the phases of Venus. On July 20th,1969, NASA successfully attempted a lu... Read This Article...

An object is producing multiple short, powerful, fast radio bursts, but scientists don't know why
In a galaxy three billion light-years from Earth is a peculiar object that continually sends out extremely shor... Read This Article...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai, on a mission to the International Space Station, apologized on Wednesday for saying he had grown 9 cm (3.5 inches) while in space and expressing concern abo... Read This Article...

"As of right now reviews of the data indicate Falcon 9 performed nominally.”
On Sunday night SpaceX launched the Zuma satellite into space. What we know for sure is that the first stage of the rocket behaved n... Read This Article...

SpaceX kicked off the new year with a mystery-shrouded mission to deliver a government spacecraft, called Zuma, into orbit.
After more than a month of delays, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket vaulted toward the skies ... Read This Article...

Russia is assembling a new group of engineers who will be responsible for crafting the nation’s lunar exploration strategy. It’s another sign that a highly ambitious human space program is gaining steam in Mosc... Read This Article...

January 3, 2018
— NASA is marking its 60th anniversary year with a new commemorative logo.
The aviation and space agency revealed the design on its website on Wednesday (Jan. 3).
NASA revealed the log... Read This Article...

Non‐kinetic attacks like jamming and interference are occurring more often. They are cheaper and easier to pull off than full-on kinetic destruction of satellites.
WASHINGTON — The public’s idea of a war in sp... Read This Article...

GLASSBORO, New Jersey — Angola’s new satellite is communicating normally with ground teams again after losing contact shortly following launch.
Moscow-based Energia, manufacturer of Angosat-1, as well as the... Read This Article...

With its vast oceans and methane-filled rivers and lakes, Titan is a prime candidate for the search for extraterrestrial life. While our knowledge of Saturn’s largest moon grew tremendously thanks to the now-de... Read This Article...

A new year is bringing a new astronaut-themed attraction to NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.
The all-new Astronaut Training Experience (ATX), opening in full in February, offers the pu... Read This Article...

MT LAUREL, New Jersey — A Zenit rocket, flying for the first time in two years, successfully orbited Angola’s debut satellite Angosat-1 on Dec. 26.
The land-launched Zenit lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmod... Read This Article...

Lots lost to space, but Mars’ rocks might have done something Earth’s didn’t.
Part of our fascination with cold-and-dry Mars is its warm-and-wet past. What was Mars like when it had liquid water? Did any lif... Read This Article...

An astronaut floats alone with the blackness of space behind him and the bright blue limb of the Earth below.
He's untethered with nothing but a NASA-made jetpack to protect him.
NASA astronaut Bruce ... Read This Article...

Eat your heart out, Ludicrous mode
Weeks after announcing that he plans to send an original Tesla Roadster to space atop a Falcon Heavy rocket, Elon Musk has released photos of the car being prepped for launch... Read This Article...

Since I was a child I have always been fascinated with the Cosmos and how things move in the universe. Trying to visualize how the Earth, Moon, planets, and stars all interact with each can be quite a daunting ... Read This Article...

Astronomers will soon get another look at the big, ghoulishly weird space rock that buzzed Earth on Halloween three years ago.
An artist's illustration of the "Halloween Asteroid" 2015 TB145, which looks mu... Read This Article...

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — In a break from its now-standard practice, SpaceX will not attempt a landing of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on its next launch this week, the company confirmed Dec. 19.
The Fa... Read This Article...

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — After carrying out a successful test flight of a new version of its New Shepard suborbital spacecraft, a Blue Origin executive said Dec. 18 that the company was now about a year away from st... Read This Article...

With high hopes for Kepler 1625b, David Kipping at Columbia University has been busy looking for moons of exoplanets (Science News, 10/14/17). He makes the case that a moon could be more livable than the planet... Read This Article...

Habitability on planets orbiting a star that is cooler and dimmer than our sun appears to be much less likely than previously thought, according to a new analysis of data from a NASA orbiter on Mars.
Could a M... Read This Article...

The sensation of weightlessness, or zero gravity, happens when the effects of gravity are not felt. Technically speaking, gravity does exist everywhere in the universe because it is defined as the force that at... Read This Article...

3D printers are becoming more popular and have more innovative improvements due to their wide use among hobbyist, dentist, jewelers, and now aerospace at the International Space Station. Creating an object, esp... Read This Article...

Three crew members who have been living and working aboard the International Space Station returned to Earth on Thursday, landing in Kazakhstan after opening a new chapter in the scientific capability of humani... Read This Article...

Pretty excited about your center-front seats for The Last Jedi? That’s still not as cool as being able to watch the new Star Wars flick in orbit. After a tweet from spaceflight reporter Robin Seemangal broke ... Read This Article...

NEW ORLEANS — Rocket Lab scrubbed a launch of its Electron small launch vehicle Dec. 11 after an abort just two seconds before liftoff.
The company scrubbed the launch attempt several minutes after computers... Read This Article...

Six people recently returned from an eight-month long isolation experiment to test human endurance for long-term space missions. Their “journey to Mars” involved being isolated below the summit of the world’s l... Read This Article...

A growing kingdom has to start somewhere—in this case, low Earth orbit works.
Asgardia, the little space nation that could, placed a tiny satellite into low Earth orbit on Thursday. This makes it the first ind... Read This Article...

And it's much bigger than we expected.
There was a bang. A big one. It was the beginning of everything, but for several hundred million years, all was darkness. Then, lights started flickering to life, stars... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON — As the two companies developing commercial crew vehicles prepare for test flights in the next 12 months, a NASA official said the agency expects those companies to be able to meet, or come close to... Read This Article...

If you’ve had dreams of being an Asgardian, you might be one step closer to seeing them come true. On November 12th, the Cygnus spacecraft launched, carrying with it supplies for the ISS and the potential new n... Read This Article...

Hello again. Last time out, we looked at a few of the prime candidates NASA is concentrating on to help broaden our understanding of the origins of life.
As promised, this time around we’ll take a brief dip in... Read This Article...

This week, the scientists and engineers on the Voyager team did something very special.
At present, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is 21 billion kilometers from Earth, or about 141 times the distance betwe... Read This Article...

Interplanetary corporate synergy at its finest
Always willing to up the stakes of an already difficult situation, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the first flight of his company’s Falcon Heavy rocket will be use... Read This Article...

SAN FRANCISCO – A new edition of an international space exploration planning document to be released early next year will offer an updated plan for human missions to the moon and Mars, emphasizing the role that... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON — NASA officials said Nov. 29 that they have given their approval, as expected, to SpaceX’s use of a previously-flown Falcon 9 first stage on the next Dragon cargo mission to the International Space ... Read This Article...

The simplest explanation is also the likeliest.
It will be a glorious day when we finally get definitive proof of alien life. It’s going to be absolutely amazing, whether we make contact with a species tha... Read This Article...

WASHINGTON — Controllers have been unable to contact a weather satellite launched on a Soyuz rocket from the country’s new spaceport Nov. 28, raising fears of a launch failure.
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifts off... Read This Article...

Astronauts' blood changes in space — but that may not stop them from getting to Mars.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk often boasts about the imminent colonization of Mars, despite major human health problems that s... Read This Article...

This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky!
Do astr... Read This Article...

LUXEMBOURG CITY — Having achieved its original goal of taking images of the entire planet every day, Planet is now focusing on developing machine learning capabilities to convert that imagery into actionable, a... Read This Article...

LITTLETON, Colo. — NASA's next Mars lander just passed a big test ahead of its planned May 2018 launch.
The spacecraft, known as InSight (short for "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy... Read This Article...

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell — a finalist for SpaceNews'Corporate Executive of the Year award — previews 2018 in an exclusive interview .
SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell at SpaceX's m... Read This Article...

When astronomers using the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii spotted a mysterious object dashing through our solar system on Oct. 19, they immediately knew it was something special.
This artist’s illustration... Read This Article...

Next stop, space? A spacesuit from Final Frontier Design did its third round of Canadian flight testing last month in preparation for eventual space tourist flights.
A view of the spacesuit testing setup in... Read This Article...

NASA has successfully launched for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the first in a series of four highly advanced polar-orbiting satellites, equipped with next-generation technology an... Read This Article...

Mariner 9, the first spacecraft to orbit a planet other than Earth, travelled to Mars and returned images of the surface, including this one of a Martian shield volcano. The craft’s wide-angle and telephoto len... Read This Article...

For the August/September 2017 issue of PSMagazine.com, Louis Fabiani wrote an article called “How to Make Friends in Outer Space.” She describes our naive attempt to present to an accessible, interactive and po... Read This Article...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch what just might be the company's most mysterious payload yet tonight (Nov. 16) — the secret Zuma mission for the U.S. government — and you can watch it live online.
A fi... Read This Article...

A team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposes deploying a balloon in Venus’s atmosphere to detect seismic activity.
Venus’s atmosphere is the heaviest of any planet in the solar system, roughly... Read This Article...

A key safety system on NASA's Orion spacecraft — one that could save lives during launch — will undergo a major test sooner than expected, the agency announced last week.
The Orion spacecraft is similar to t... Read This Article...

A European astronaut now has a permanent presence in space. Luca Parmitano — who flew on the International Space Station in 2013 — has an asteroid named after him, called "37627 Lucaparmitano."
Italian astr... Read This Article...

“The Dream Chaser had a beautiful flight and landing!”
On Saturday, the Dream Chaser space plane completed a milestone in its development. During an “approach and landing” test, the spacecraft was dropped from... Read This Article...

From changing eyesight to an increased risk of cancer, human bodies face numerous challenges in space
We see it in science fiction movies all the time: humans settling on Mars or venturing into the far reaches... Read This Article...

A Cygnus cargo spacecraft will blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) this Saturday (Nov. 11) to deliver supplies and some fascinating science experiments to the Expedition 53 crew.
The Orbital ... Read This Article...

Though NASA says it’s working toward a date in December 2019
The first flight of NASA’s next big rocket, the Space Launch System, likely won’t launch until June 2020, though it’s now officially scheduled to ge... Read This Article...

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration is always on the cutting edge when it comes to technology, and many of the medical advances made both on the ground and in orbit help keep explore... Read This Article...

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